An employee accused of setting fire to a California warehouse reportedly compared himself to Luigi Mangione in a message sent to co-workers after the blaze, according to authorities who spoke at a Friday press conference, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Chamel Abdulkarim, 29, has been charged with several counts of felony and state arson after a massive fire destroyed a Kimberly-Clark paper products warehouse in Ontario, California. The city is about an hour outside Los Angeles.
Authorities said the fire caused property damage worth nearly $600 million.
The reported message to co-workers came after the fire, according to the account described by officials. The source did not include the contents of the message beyond the comparison to Mangione.
Abdulkarim’s arrest and charges come as investigators continue to assess the scale of the destruction at the warehouse site. Kimberly-Clark is a major paper products company, and the Ontario facility was described as a warehouse used for its products.
The case has drawn attention because of the extent of the damage and the unusual comparison allegedly made in the message to co-workers. Officials have not released additional details in the source about motive or the circumstances leading up to the fire.
No further information was included in the source about court proceedings, a plea, or a defense response.
The allegations remain just that: allegations. Abdulkarim has been charged, and the matter now appears to be moving through the legal process following the fire and the reported statements attributed to him.
